Jeff Buhler (Pet Semetary) is writing whilst Daniel Cerone (The Blacklist, The Mentalist, Dexter) is the showrunner. George R.R. Martin met them recently and recounts their meeting here, as well as sharing some concept art (see above).

Nightflyers should begin shooting shortly at sound stages in Limerick in the Republic of Ireland with a substantial budget. We should hopefully have casting news and more information shortly.

Monday, 27 November 2017

A Reddit user has posted three GIFs which seem to be from Netflix's upcoming TV series Altered Carbon, based on the first (of three) Takeshi Kovacs novel by British SF author Richard K. Morgan.

The images were posted by a user called "Last Envoy", possibly a reference to the titular character of Takeshi Kovacs, an "Envoy" who swaps bodies to carry out missions. They were accompanied by a time and location: 2348 A.D. and Bay City. The date backs up the information that the date of the series has been moved up by about a hundred years (the novel is set in the 25th Century), whilst Bay City is the name of the futuristic city in the book.

The "Skin Jobs Dive Bar" sounds like it could be a homage to Blade Runner. The noodle bar shot above also shows a police car and a handcuffed suspect.

Above is a "Smoks n Vapr" kiosk, which is appropriately convincing.

If these pictures are legit - and I don't believe there's any other epic cyberpunk TV shows or movies filming so I can't see what else they are from - then it looks like Netflix have spent their money well on the series.

Altered Carbon is due to air on Netflix in 2018. The producer said a few months ago that they were targeting a February release date, so this could be with us sooner than expected.

ETA: Here's the cover for the reissue of Altered Carbon, featuring - I believe - Leonardo Nam as the "original" Kovacs before he's resleeved. It's an interesting choice as Kovacs spends most of the novel in a Caucasian body (played by Joel Kinnaman) but okay.

ETA2: Richard Morgan has retweeted the story on io9, making it further likely this is legit.

Plot: The B5
War Council assembles and are joined by Draal. Delenn has decided that they
need to try finding the other remaining First Ones who may have remained behind
along with the Shadows and Vorlons. Several First Ones apparently fought in the
Great War of a thousand years ago, but have laid low since then. Marcus is
against the idea: all Rangers are told to steer clear of any potential First
Ones since they can be exceedingly dangerous. The others agree to the plan and
Draal invites Sheridan down to Epsilon III to use the Great Machine to locate
some of these alien creatures. However, not long after a new Political Officer
arrives on Babylon 5 from Earth, Julie Musante. Musante is intent on making
sure Sheridan follows policies implemented on Earth regarding alien relations,
especially given Sheridan’s dubious decisions regarding the Centauri at Christmas
(B22). Sheridan is tied up on the
station and sends Ivanova in his place.

G’Kar, meanwhile, has noticed that everyone seems to be in
secret meetings all the time and confronts Delenn about it, demanding to be let
in on the secret. She refuses. Trying a different tack, G’Kar approaches
Garibaldi. Whilst Garibaldi ponders the idea, G’Kar loans him The Book of
G’Quan to encourage him to do the right thing.

Ivanova enters the Great Machine and reaches out across
space and time for the First Ones. She sees a desolate planet and gets the
feeling of an alien presence. She recognises the planet from starcharts: Sigma
957. However, another strange alien force appears, looking for her. It takes
the appearance of a collection of brightly glowing eyes, arranged in a similar
configuration to the eyes of a Shadow creature. She evades its attention, but
is then swept along by her own thoughts and is shown something else from the
past: Earthforce One exploding near Io over a year ago (A22). She overhears a transmission in
which then-Vice-President Clark tells an unseen colleague (who sounds just like
Morden) how much he wants Santiago dead. Ivanova emerges from the machine with
a copy of the transmission and sends it to Sheridan. She and Marcus take the White
Star to Sigma 957 immediately. There the same alien force which almost
killed Catherine Sakai (A6) appears. Ivanova manages to establish
communications and asks for the aliens’ help in the war against the Shadows.
The aliens seem unimpressed and move off, but Ivanova keeps following them
until they give in, apparently intrigued by human persistence. However, they
make it clear they are not friends of the Vorlons and are not keen on having to
fight alongside them.

Musante’s attempts to keep tabs on Sheridan are constantly
frustrated and Zack Allan becomes suspicious something is up, especially when
Garibaldi goes to a meeting with Sheridan based on a ‘Code 7R’ alert (meaning
War Council business). Code 7R is not in the Earth Alliance regs. When Zack
presses Garibaldi about it, Garibaldi tells him to keep his nose out.

Sheridan sends a copy of Ivanova’s transmission to General
Hague and it is released to both the Earth Alliance Senate and ISN the
following day. The Senate launches an immediate and full investigation,
ignoring Clark’s cries that the recording is a fake meant to bring down Earth,
and Musante is recalled to Earth to deal with the crisis in ‘public morale’
this generates.

Saturday, 25 November 2017

Blackbird Interactive's excellent real-time strategy game Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak has gotten a substantial update and a steep discount for the Steam Autumn Sale.

Deserts of Kharak is a prequel to the classic Homeworld series of real-time strategy games (Homeworld, Homeworld: Cataclysm - recently renamed Emergence due to copyright issues, and Homeworld 2). Although made by a new company, Blackbird Interactive was founded by ex-developers from Relic Entertainment and includes many veterans who worked on the original games.

The new update fixes some rare but annoying bugs in the original game and adds a "tactical pause" feature, allowing orders to be given to units whilst the game is paused. This feature was present in the original Homeworld and its sequels but was missing from Deserts of Kharak due to time pressures during development.

Deserts of Kharak has also been heavily discounted to £8.99 during the Steam sale. It is an absolute no-brainer for that price. Homeworld Remastered, the spruced-up and re-released version of Homeworld and Homeworld 2 - has also been discounted for the sale and if buy both games together you get a further saving.

Blackbird and publishers Gearbox have also said that the Homeworld franchise will continue - hopefully with a full Homeworld 3 set in space to pick up on the slightly odd ending to Homeworld 2 - if sales of Deserts of Kharak and Homeworld Remastered are strong enough, so if you were thinking of picking up the games but hadn't gotten round to them yet, now is a good time for it.

Plot: Na’Far,
the new, Centauri-approved Narn Ambassador to Babylon 5, arrives at the station
to take over from G’Kar as leader of the local Narn population. He tells G’Kar
that unless G’Kar hands himself over to the Centauri, the families of the Narn
still on Babylon 5 will be imprisoned and harassed. G’Kar resolves himself to
his fate, but Na’Far’s bodyguard, Ta’Lon (the same Narn befriended by Sheridan
in B11), convinces both G’Kar and the local Narn population that G’Kar
can do more good for their world here on Babylon 5. Na’Far realises he will
never be accepted as the Narn leader and returns to Narn. Ta’Lon decides to
stay behind to assist G’Kar.

Londo is becoming concerned that Vir may be swept up in the
troubles that he feels are coming. He calls in the favour Delenn owes him (A19) and has Vir assigned to Minbar as
the first Centauri ambassador granted permission to live there for several
years. Vir departs for the Minbari homeworld.

Garibaldi is becoming concerned that Dr. Franklin is relying
too much on stimulants to stay awake and work extra hours. Franklin assures him
he has the situation under control, but Garibaldi doesn’t know if he can believe
him.

A robotic alien probe arrives at the station. It offers to
give the inhabitants of Babylon 5 new technology, including medical advances
and weapons, after determining whether or not they are worthy. If they fail to
answer its 600-odd questions on physics and chemistry, it will explode and
destroy the entire station. The answers are gathered, but Sheridan ponders why
the aliens are using an all-or-nothing approach. He suddenly realises that if
they answer all the questions then the aliens will realise they are advanced
enough to be a threat and then the bomb will explode. Sheridan withholds
the answers and the alien probe, convinced Babylon 5 isn’t a threat, leaves
peacefully. Sheridan waits until it is well out of range and transmits the
answers anyway, which causes the probe to explode and removing it as a threat
from other races.

Standing outside the list for the time being: the six Bauchelain and Korbal Broach novellas are mostly self-contained stories exploring the backstory of three minor characters from Memories of Ice. They are fun but inessential. They can be read after Memories of Ice or whenever.

I haven't read the Path to Ascendancy novels (so far, Dancer's Lament and Deadhouse Landing) yet, so can't speak to their worthiness as books you can start the series with. However, it's worth noting that the Path to Ascendancy series is incomplete with at least two and possibly more volumes to come, so I would put them at the end.

As for the Kharkanas Trilogy (so far, Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light), you can read that right at the end or you can hold off until we know when the final book, Walk in Shadow, is coming out.

Rationale for the order:

The order is mostly in order of publishing, although with a couple of caveats. Night of Knives is both the oldest novel in the series (it was written circa 1987, but not published until 2004) and chronologically takes place before Gardens of the Moon. However, the events of Night of Knives are not particularly germane to Gardens (the "big event" takes place off-page). Instead, Night of Knives is more important for the characters it establishes on Malaz Island. These characters do not recur in the series until The Bonehunters, over 4,000 pages later. It therefore makes more sense to read Night of Knives immediately before The Bonehunters.

House of Chains should be read before Midnight Tides: the events of Midnight Tides are actually being told in flashback by one character to another at the end of HoC. I know some people like to move Midnight Tides up because if you read in publishing order it "spoils" the fate of that character in Midnight Tides, but that's a bit weird as a reason. Plus moving Midnight Tides up disrupts the expertly-paced flow of the first four novels with the alternating between Genabackis and Seven Cities. Dumping Lether in the middle, although chronologically correct, throws off the pacing. Plus it also means you have to wait several thousand pages before catching up to the Lether crew in Reaper's Gale (which has to be read after The Bonehunters).

Return of the Crimson Guard should be read after The Bonehunters. In terms of publication order this is correct but also in terms of internal chronology. More than a year passes between The Bonehunters and Reaper's Gale and Return of the Crimson Guard explores what happens during that year. In addition, Return has a major, game-changing ending which the later novels (by both Erikson and Esslemont) spoil. Delaying Return also means delaying the later Esslemont novels, which is a bad idea because of the way the later books interface with one another.

On different lists I place Stonewielder in different orders: it can be read immediately after Return of the Crimson Guard as this is chronologically correct (the two books are separated by a few weeks, and chronologically Reaper's Gale takes place after both books) or you can put Stonewielder after Reaper's Gale to mix things up a bit more between Erikson and Esslemont. However, Reaper's Gale ends with our heroes ready to go kick some backside in Kolanse. Putting Stonewielder after Gale means this storyline hangs for three full novels before we get back to it, whilst putting Stonewielder before Gale reduces this to two books.

The order is important because it places Toll the Hounds and Orb Sceptre Throne next to one another. Orb Sceptre Throne is the direct sequel to Toll the Hounds and Toll the Hounds does a lot of setup work for Orb Sceptre Throne which otherwise goes to waste or might be forgotten. Also, although Toll the Hounds is probably Erikson's best-written book it is almost the most obtusely weird in terms of plot movement and events (it's the longest book in the series but arguably has the least amount of actual important events taking place in it). It's a huge amount of set-up with only one bit of pay-off at the end. Orb Sceptre Throne actually has the rest of the pay-off.

Dust of Dreams and The Crippled God are one extra-long novel split in two for length, so they should definitely be read together.

Blood and Bone takes place chronologically at the same time as The Crippled God (literally, our heroes in B&B see and sense the world-changing events at the end of The Crippled God three-quarters of the way through the book) and extends beyond it, so should be read after The Crippled God. Assail then picks up and resolves some storyline left dangling from Blood and Bone so they work well together.

So, what's wrong with the Tor list?

The Tor list suggests starting with the KharkanasTrilogy novels Forge of Darkness and Fall of Light. This is really not a good idea. The Kharkanas Trilogy is a prequel in the purest form, working better when you have knowledge of the characters from chronologically later on. In addition, whilst Forge of Darkness is divisive, Fall of Light is easily the worst-regarded Erikson novel published to date. Having it as the second book in the series I think would be a major mistake, as I've seen that novel drive off eighteen-year veterans of the series who've been with it since Gardens of the Moon was published eighteen years ago.

Can you just read the series sequentially and not bother mixing up Erikson and Esslemont?
You can, but I would strongly recommend against it. Although some readers are less keen on Esslemont as a writer than Erikson, it is inarguable that Esslemont's books are fully canon and Erikson does refer to them in his later novels. This is particularly egregious with regard to major events that happen in Return of the Crimson Guard; having them spoiled by later Erikson books is very lame compared to seeing the events happen as they should. In addition, Esslemont and Erikson paced their books and the events within them on the basis of their publication dates being mixed up, so it is more effective to read them with that in mind.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

Tuesday, 21 November 2017

On 20 November 2007 the video game company BioWare took one of the biggest risks in their history by releasing what was only their third original game, not one set in a pre-existing universe. The first, Jade Empire (2005), had been extremely good but had not set the world on fire. Given that BioWare had bet the farm on them moving into original, creator-owned IPs, they needed their new game to be a success. It was called Mass Effect and, rather fortunately, it was.

BioWare had been founded in Canada in 1995 by newly-graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip. Using programming knowledge gained from other courses taken alongside their medical studies, they created a video game called Shattered Steel. It was published by Interplay and was a very modest success. Yip decided to return to practising medicine whilst Muzyka and Zeschuk moved into full-time development. Their second game came about during discussions with Interplay, who wanted to use the Dungeons and Dragons licence they'd just acquired (at a steal) from TSR, Inc. BioWare created a new video game engine, which they dubbed "Infinity", which blew away the team at Interplay and led to them getting the commission to make a massive fantasy roleplaying game. For a brand new studio it was a big achievement...and a huge responsibility.

Fortunately the two doctors and their rapidly expanding team were up to the job. They released Baldur's Gate in 1998 and it was an enormous success. They branched into console development with MDK2 (2000) but their hearts had been stolen by character and story-focused roleplaying games, games which emphasised character developments and even romances over magical explosions and loot. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) was an even bigger success than its forebear, whilst Interplay's in-house Black Isle Studios used the Infinity Engine to craft the excellent games Planescape: Torment (1999), Icewind Dale (2000) and Icewind Dale II (2002).

BioWare then created a new engine, the Aurora Engine, to power a new D&D roleplaying game. Neverwinter Nights (2002) was also a big success, although more for its incredibly powerful campaign-creation system allowing players to recreate the D&D experience online than the game's own, pedestrian story (the game's expansionswere rather better-received). By this time BioWare had become arguably the most feted RPG design studio on the planet, so were the perfect collaborators for LucasArts, who wanted to make the first-ever Star Wars roleplaying game. The result, Knights of the Old Republic, was released in 2003 and was a huge success, one of the best RPGs of all time and possibly the finest single Star Wars video game ever made (a distinction it comfortably holds today, despite a serious challenge from Jedi Outcast and TIE Fighter).

At the very height of their success and critical acclaim, BioWare chose to give it up and begin working on their own, original titles. They encouraged their partner companies to dish the sequels out to the old Black Isle team, now rising out of the ashes of the collapsed Interplay as Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian made the well-regarded (if buggy) Knights of the Old Republic II (2004) and Neverwinter Nights II (2007) whilst BioWare began their assault on the original IP space.

BioWare began developing three original games. The first was a martial arts roleplaying game called Jade Empire, using the Knights of the Old Republic engine. The game came out in 2005 and was an original X-Box title. It was a modest success, but not the mega-selling hit BioWare had been hoping for. They also began working on a new fantasy IP, a vast and expansive RPG using a whole new engine which would be a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate. The game eventually went way over time and budget, but was ultimately released in 2009 under the name Dragon Age. Fortunately it was a big hit and went to spawn two sequels (and a third, under the working title Dragon Age IV, is currently in development).

Alongside these titles, BioWare began working on a science fiction RPG. They wanted to do something different for this game and that was to make an epic space opera in every sense of the word: a game with a deep, detailed backstory, lots of alien races and a growing menace which would eventually, over the course of three games, build into an apocalyptic threat. BioWare also really wanted to nail the things they'd always been applauded for - deep, interesting characters complete with friendships, interrelationships and even romances - but using modern 3D technology to make the characters more relateable and convincing than ever before.

Released in November 2007, Mass Effect fulfilled those goals. The player takes on the role of Commander Shepard, a resourceful military officer in the Systems Alliance (a future human government) and the first human "Spectre", a special forces agent tasked with dealing with massive threats to the Citadel, a multi-racial alliance based in a huge, ancient, alien space station. Saren Arterius, a rogue Turian Spectre, begins undertaking strange attacks against Citadel forces and Shepard is assigned to stop him, using a starship called the Normandy and a multi-ethnic crew of humans and aliens. The game ranges across a large chunk of the Milky War galaxy and, as the story developers, Shepard is forced to make a number of huge decisions with extremely far-reaching consequences. Literally, the fate of entire species is in Shepard's hands.

The game was widely praised for the customisability of the character. Shepard could be male (voiced by Marc Meer) or female (voiced by Jennifer Hale) and their physical appearance could be tweaked considerably. They could also be "good" (Paragon) or "evil" (Renegade) based on moral decisions they made throughout the game. Companion characters could be permanently killed off, along with allies and enemies (who would then go on to appear - or not - in the sequels). This led to a game with a set storyline but where the details of that story could completely change from player to player.

At the end of the game it is confirmed that Saren is working for a powerful alien race called the Reapers, a biomechanical nightmare that emerges every few millennia to wipe out advanced spacefaring races for unknown reasons. The overwhelming threat of the Reapers became the driving force behind the sequels.

Mass Effect sold well on release and was critically acclaimed, appeasing BioWare's new owners Electronic Arts (who were rather less happy with the long gestation period and enormous budget of Dragon Age, eventually mandating a low-budget, quickie sequel to help justify the cost of the first game). It was followed by Mass Effect 2 in 2010 and Mass Effect 3 in 2012. These games increased the emphasis on characterisation and story whilst refining combat (both games saw a reduction in traditional RPG gameplay elements, such as inventory management, to the ire of some fans). Mass Effect 3's release in March 2012 was highly controversial, with a badly-written ending that many fans felt was unsatisfying. BioWare released patches and DLC which reworked the ending and improved it, but it remained a dubious decision.

Despite the poorly-received ending of the third game, the Mass Effect series remains generally well-regarded. It's a big-budget, combat-focused space opera game which nevertheless emphasises relationships, dialogue and story over mass slaughter. There's a lot of good writing, moments of great humour and some canny characterisation in the trilogy, and the degree to which you can change things so entire races can be absent from later games in the series is remarkable. Mass Effect was also highly notable in that it was almost the only new space opera universe to appear on screen in the first decade of the 21st Century (The Expanse and SyFy label-mates Killjoys and Dark Matter eventually helped end that drought). The game trilogy eventually went on to sell about 20 million copies, which although not setting the world on fire (Fallout 4, for example, sold over half that in its first 24 hours on sale) is very impressive for a single-player-focused, narratively-driven game series.

Unfortunately, Mass Effect's legacy has not been enduring. The fourth Mass Effect game, Mass Effect: Andromeda was released in 2017 and faced a seriously mixed reception, with technical issues and a bland storyline. The game sold 2 million copies in its first six months on sale, which was far below EA and BioWare's expectations and led to the series being put on hiatus (despite two sequels to Andromeda being in the planning stages). BioWare are now focusing on Dragon Age IV and a whole-new IP, an action game called Anthem. Not only is the future of Mass Effect itself in doubt, EA seems to be down on the whole idea of single-player-focused games with strong stories altogether, preferring big "open world" games or multiplayer.

Although flawed, the original Mass Effect trilogy remains a compelling gaming experience and well worth a look if you haven't yet given it a try. The complete trilogy is available now for the PlayStation 3, X-Box 360, X-Box One and PC.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.

Monday, 20 November 2017

A few months back I wrote A Beginner's Guide to Boardgames, which was quite successful. So now I'm going to do the same thing for roleplaying games, because why the hell not? This article will differ because it's less-focused on more recent games and offers more of an overview of the entire field, and also that there is no differentiation between "beginner", "intermediate" and "advanced" games, although I note in each entry how approachable each game is. Generally the main difficulty with RPGs is getting into them in the first place and getting comfortable playing them; once that's achieved it's relatively straightforward to adapt to other games.

So, pen-and-paper roleplaying games. Since the mid-1970s, when Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson released the original version of Dungeons and Dragons, RPGs have been a continuous source of enjoyment, bringing together friends and allowing them to bond over murdering dragons in the face. RPGs have diversified over the years, offering rules-heavy, combat-focused games and lightly-codified, narrative games where the emphasis is more on creating a collaborative story than in winning any particular objective or reward.

RPGs, like boardgames, went through a lean period in the late 1990s when video games (including, ironically, some games based on pen-and-paper RPGs) exploded in popularity. They also made a strong comeback in the 2000s thanks to the Internet and, more recently, the arrival of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites as a way of funding more niche and specialised games.

Without further ado, let's take a look at some of the better RPGs for beginners that are around.

Dungeons and Dragons: The ClassicWell, we have to start here, don't we? The original roleplaying game, the longest-surviving and, for most of its lifespan, the most popular. You know the drill here, a group of players create characters from stock fantasy races (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes being the basic choices) and stock fantasy careers (barbarian, bard, cleric, mage, monk, paladin, rogue, warrior) and engage in surprisingly diverse adventures, ranging from political thrillers to gruelling dungeon crawls to war epics and many more. It's straightforward, it's fun and it can be quite varied in tone and potential (which is more than can be said for some other, more tightly-focused RPGs). D&D remains probably the ultimate RPG because it's so familiar but can turn on a dime in a heartbeat and become something quite unpredictable and weird.

You do have a choice of which rule set to play with, as the five numbered editions to date (not to mention several variant half-editions) do each have their drawbacks and benefits, and I'll be covering that in a separate article. Fortunately, the current edition is one of the more welcoming, hitting a sweet spot of offering a lot of customisability and options whilst also not being extremely confusing and occasionally flat-out broken. The 5th Edition is well-supported by Wizards of the Coast with a lot of online support, but the relative paucity of published material is a bit surprising, and the lack of new world books updating settings like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance and Planescape to the new edition is disappointing. But compared to the insane bloat of previous editions, the new edition makes D&D a lot more welcoming than it has been for many years.

An alternative choice may be Pathfinder, which is derived from D&D 3rd Edition but eliminates many of its smaller problems (the larger ones remain, however) and backs it up with an immense amount of support and, more recently, an SF spin-off called Starfinder. It isn't as streamlined and elegant as D&D 5th Edition, but it has an utterly titanic amount of content, a friendly and welcoming community and support that is second to none.

Star Wars: The Ultimate Beginner's GameWell, it's Star Wars, isn't it? You can play a bounty hunters or a Jedi, an Imperial stormtrooper or an ace Rebel pilot, an escaped Wookie slave or a Coruscanti noble. Games can be set at the height of the Clone Wars, the Galactic Civil War, during the ancient Jedi-Sith conflict or, crazily, maybe during a rare period of peace. Hate the movie Rogue One? Form your own crack team of agents and try to steal the Death Star plans your way.

There are three distinct versions of the Star Wars RPG: the original West End Games version, the two ill-advised Wizards of the Coast editions (derived from D&D 3rd and 4th Editions, and neither fit particularly well) and the current game from Fantasy Flight, which consists of three distinct rulebooks (Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force and Destiny). I've never played the Fantasy Flight version and have heard mostly good things about the rules, but the complete experience does require purchasing three very expensive rulebooks and then buying custom dice, a huge no-no for most RPGs. Fantasy Flight do good work and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one, but I'm not particularly moved to try the new version (especially after being burned badly on the WotC editions).

Instead, if you can get hold of a copy (and there's been a recent 30th anniversary reissue, which makes things easier) of the original West End Games version, go with that. You only need six-sided dice and the ruleset remains one of the most elegantly designed. It's streamlined, easily understandable but opens up into greater complexity later on. It's a game which will have you gunning down stormtroopers, flying X-wings and doing the Kessel Run, all in under twelve parsecs (put lots of skill points in Astrogation). Compared to many roleplaying games, which tend towards bloat and steep learning curves, the West End Star Wars is a thing of beauty. It's Star Wars! It's fun!

All versions of the game do suffer the "Jedi problem", namely that players portraying Jedi can end up dominating games and getting over-powered, but a canny Gamemaster can overcome that problem by balancing opponents appropriately. Overall, Star Wars has a tremendously well-developed setting and a lot of variety, and the West End Games version nails it very nicely.

Deadlands: The Weird WestThe original "Weird West" roleplaying game and still one of the most satisfying roleplaying experiences around. The game is set in an alternative history of the 19th Century, when, at the point of the American Civil War, a Native American shaman inadvertently released Lovecraftian forces of horror into the world. The dead rise, hideous spirits possess the living and horrific monsters appear to threaten the United States and indeed the entire world. Players can take on the role of local townsfolk trying to defend themselves, secret agents belonging to paranormal investigation organisations (the Pinkerton Detective Agency and the Texas Rangers), escaped slaves seeking revenge against the Confederates or anything inbetween. A robust rule system which treats combat like a poker game remains inventive twenty years on (now streamlined with the new Savage Worlds rules system, derived from Deadlands 1st Edition) and there is scope to treat the game like an outright horror game or a zany steampunk adventure with zeppelins and crazed inventors.

This is basically a game for people who appreciate the Lovecraftian approach to cosmic horror, but hate the nihilism and prefer to belief they can defeat eldritch forces from beyond the dawn of time with gatling guns, gyrocopters and steam cannons.

Call of Cthulhu: Go Mad & DieOn the flipside of that approach is Call of Cthulhu, the official roleplaying game of Lovecraftian horror. In this game you create paranormal investigators and set out to investigate strange goings-on in various parts of the world. The emphasis is on investigation, research, cooperation and collaborative storytelling: victory doesn't come through killing the monsters with shotguns, but through surviving with your limbs and sanity intact.

Call of Cthulhu has been hugely popular for thirty years for offering a very different experience to the power fantasies of games like D&D. The characters in Call of Cthulhu are far more fragile and more likely to end up dead, maimed or insane if they try to fight horrific monsters head-on. Defeating the forces of darkness requires brains, wits, intelligence and knowing when to make a strategic withdrawal. To be fair this game is not for everyone - watching D&D-raised power-gamers trying to hack their way through the game and getting angry when they realise they can't can be an uncomfortable experience - but for those who enjoy the tension and the horror, it's a gripping experience.

World of Darkness: Be a Vampire, Drink Blood, Have FunThis isn't a roleplaying game, but rather a family of interrelated games which share a common background and setting. The best-known of these is Vampire: The Masquerade, which allows you (spoiler alert) to play vampires, with additional rulebooks allowing you to play werewolves, mages, mummies, wraiths etc. Essentially this is a game which allows to play as the "bad guys", but also explores these cultures to reveal a great deal of nuance and complexity.

If you want to play an urban fantasy RPG, World of Darkness is the go-to choice, although there is some confusion due to the fact that there are two distinct versions of the setting and all of its sub-games. Paradox Interactive recently bought the entire setting and seem to be considering a revamp of the whole line, which would be welcome. But if you want to play a vampire and engage in vampire-based shenanigans in a very well-realised world, this is the ideal choice.

Numenera: Be Weird, Be WonderfulNumenera is, essentially, Dying Earth: The Roleplaying Game (which actually exists as a small, intriguing game from Pelgrane Press). Set a billion years into the future when nine great ages of human civilisation have come and gone and aliens (from both other planets and other universes) have settled on Earth, the game features one of the most vivid and interesting settings to emerge in recent years. The game has magic, although it's really ultra-advanced science and technology, and offers an intriguing balance between traditional D&D-style roleplaying and something far weirder.

Originally launched through Kickstarter, the game is now expanding with a second edition (but don't call it a second edition) which seeks to give players more of an ability to change the world. It's an interesting, original game which takes Jack Vance's original Dying Earth setting and revamps it with a lot new ideas and atmosphere.

There's a lot more out there, of course. There's the Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying title from Green Ronin for those who want to fulfil their Game of Thrones fantasies. There's the newly-released Starfinder SF game from Paizo Publishing or its spiritual predecssor from the old TSR days, Alternity (complete with its StarCraft RPG spin-off). There's a whole family of Warhammer 40,000 RPGs from Fantasy Flight (which are sadly quickly going out of print). There's an intriguing RPG about godlike superheroes in a fantasy realm in Exalted. Deadlands has a post-apocalyptic, far-future sequel game called Hell on Earth. There's a generic universal roleplaying system called, er, GURPS, which can be used to play everything from cyberpunk to adventures on Terry Pratchett's Discworld (and was used by Steven Erikson and Ian Esslemont to create the Malazan world). There's the Shadowrun roleplaying game, a fantastic setting which is still looking for a good rules system (and still not finding it). If you can find a copy, there's the bafflingly-out-of-print MechWarrior RPG if you like big stompy robots. There's the Judge Dredd RPG from Mongoose Publishing for those who want to Be The Law, as well as the classic space opera Traveller game, which has been around for almost as long as D&D, not to mention the madness-inducing Paranoia (trust no one!).

There's a lot of roleplaying goodness out there and a lot to choose from. It's a good time for the field and a good time to get involved.

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Frank Castle, the infamous "Punisher", has hunted down and killed everyone involved in the murder of his wife and children. He thinks he can move on to another life, working construction in New York, but it's not long before the past comes back to haunt him...and he discovers that there may have been more behind his family's murder than he first thought. It's time for the Punisher to return.

Jon Bernthal's tortured, intense portrayal of the Punisher was the highlight of the second season of Daredevil, with a hugely positive viewer reception, so it's not surprising that Netflix and Marvel quickly moved to commission a dedicated series for the character. The Punisher, as a character, has always been a hard sell for a mass audience, as he is an ultra-violent vigilante willing to dispense lethal force to punish criminals rather than bring them in for trial and incarceration. After three mostly weak action movies featuring the character, Netflix seem to have found a way of depicting and humanising the character by seeing him through the eyes of other characters: Daredevil and his allies on that show and a new collection of characters on the new series.

The arrival of The Punisher comes at an awkward moment. In corporate terms, the previous two Netflix shows - Iron Fist and Luke Cage - both suffered serious problems writing, pacing and characterisation. The team-up show The Defenders, which united Iron Fist and Luke Cage with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, was fun but a bit lightweight, with a fairly underwhelming set of villains. More politically, the arrival of a series which could be said to glorify firearms and violence at a moment in the United States history when gun violence is, once again, squarely in the news could have been deemed insensitive.

On the first point, The Punisher can relax. It's the best-paced and best-characterised series in the Netflix roster since the first season of Jessica Jones, effortlessly outpacing Iron Fist, Luke Cage and The Defenders in quality (as well as the second season of Daredevil). The Punisher has a murky story to tell about black ops, illegal activities in the CIA, power politics in Homeland Security and the morality of using violence to answer such crimes, but it does so in a methodical, logical manner. It's not afraid to spend an entire episode setting up a character's backstory and dedicates one episode to a series of flashbacks to American military operations in Afghanistan. Another is based around Frank and another character, David Lieberman (aka "Micro"), trying to work out if they can trust one another, which is difficult as they are both paranoid loners. In fact, the relationship between the two characters is the centrepiece of the season and is extremely effective, light-years from the gimmicky, "the Punisher gets his radio guy" story it could have been. A superb touch is that Micro's family is still alive (although they think he's dead) and Frank sees a way through them of redeeming himself by saving them so Micro can - eventually - do what Frank cannot and go home.

The Punisher's other characters are equally excellent. Amber Rose Revah is outstanding as Homeland Security Agent Dinah Midani whose prominent side-story could have gone in one of two equally cheesy directions (an unwitting thorn in the Punisher's side or an outright ally) and instead steers a more interesting and nuanced path between the two options. The Expanse's Shohreh Aghdashloo is also very good in a small supporting role as Dinah's mother, and the casting is outstanding as they look like they could easily be mother and daughter. Deborah Ann Woll returns as Karen Page from Daredevil and The Defenders, albeit with significantly less screentime, and is as great as usual, combining toughness, intelligence and resourcefulness behind an apparently vulnerable facade. Ben Barnes is also great as the military vet turned corporate security expert Billy Russo, combining a smooth businessman's spiel with more raw moments of genuine anger from his past experiences.

These characters and the story advance with an ease and depth that most of the other Netflix Marvel shows (which come nowhere near filling their thirteen-episode runs with interesting stories) can only envy. More debatable is the show's relationship with violence and the stance it takes with regards to the issues of gun control in the United States. It's a very gory show, easily the most graphically violence series in the Marvel/Netflix canon, despite the fact that Castle goes surprisingly long periods without massacring lots of bad guys. The violence is handled very matter-of-factly, with less emphasis on "cool" shots and action scenes (well, one "cool guys don't look at explosions" shot excepted) and more on combat being ugly, quick and painful. So the show does a reasonable job of not glorifying violence, even when it does have quite a lot of it. The gun control issue is more interesting, as Karen Page is - despite being a card-carrying liberal social justice advocate on every other front - a firm believer in her right to carry a concealed weapon (after her experiences in previous shows, unsurprisingly) and puts this point across forcefully several times. The show seems to want to get into this debate but ultimately dodges the issue.

The other main thematic debate carried through the show revolves around military veterans. The US treatment of its vets is a hot political issue (as it is in the UK for that matter) and the show manages to avoid grandstanding instead of showing the reality for the returning soldiers on the ground: variable levels of support in how they readjust to civilian life. Russo finds a way of adapting his battlefield skills to (apparently) honest employment back home, Curtis Hoyle becomes an insurance salesman and a mentor to younger soldiers suffering from PTSD, O'Connor is a boastful blowhard and Lewis Wilson's early attempts to find a way of readjusting to life back home gradually deteriorate until he becomes a menace to society and those around him. This storyline has been controversial, with Wilson becoming a homegrown terrorist, but the series does enough to show that his choices and his way out is not the right one and could have been averted with more support and understanding.

The first season of The Punisher is not flawless. Castle's solution to absolutely every problem being the deployment of ludicrous amounts of firepower is true to the character, but risks becoming a bit one-note, and there is as an at times comical disparity between how much damage our heroes can take in combat and keep trucking, and bad guy goons who go down with a single hit. But these problems are relatively minor.

The first season of The Punisher (****) is a surprisingly nuanced story that tackles a number of important issues, from veteran rights to gun violence, whilst delivering a well-paced (if maybe more slow-burning than most were expecting) story through the eyes of a number of well-drawn characters. Freed from the baggage of the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Punisher shines, and hopefully this will be the model for the Netflix shows going forwards. The series is on general release on Netflix worldwide.

Saturday, 18 November 2017

As a companion to the ongoing Babylon 5 Rewatch Project, here's some information on the military spacecraft that feature heavily in the show.

The Earth Alliance

The Earth Alliance utilises a wide variety of craft for combat and commercial purposes. The Earth Alliance is notable in being both potentially large - its population far outstrips that of Centauri Prime, Minbar or most of the non-aligned worlds - but relatively technologically primitive. Most notably, the Earth Alliance does not have artificial gravity technology, meaning that only its largest ships (which have rotating sections simulating gravity through centrifugal force) can spend prolonged periods in the field without having to return to a gravity well for the health of the crew.

The Earth Alliance's military is known as Earthforce.

SA-23E Mitchell-Hyundyne "Aurora" Starfury

The workhorse starfighter of Earthforce, the Aurora Starfury entered service after the Dilgar War and is a combination of earlier Earth technology with some influence from Dilgar designs. The Starfury is noted for its ruggedness, ability to absorb more punishment than most fighters, its survivability (the entire cockpit can detach as a lifeboat module) and its incredibly powerful quad thrusters, which allow the fighter to rotate 180 degrees in 0.2 seconds. The ship is armed with four major plasma cannons which give it impressive damage output and missiles can be fitted to the outboard wings for even more combat options, although these tend to increase the bulk and reduce the manoeuvrability of the fighter. A "Heavy Starfury" variant also exists with a rear-mounted weapons pod to allow targets to be engaged to the rear of the fighter.

The Starfury is a versatile and formidable fighter. During the Earth-Minbari War the Starfury was able to outfly and defeat Minbari Niall fighters one-on-one more than a third of the time, even given the Niall's superior speed, stealth defences and armaments.

The Starfury's biggest weakness is an inability to enter planetary atmospheres to pursue enemy craft with multi-theatre capabilities.

SA-23J Mitchell-Hyundyne "Thunderbolt" Starfury

Entering service in 2260, the Thunderbolt is Earthforce's most advanced starfighter. Incorporating many of the advantages of the Aurora-class, the Thunderbolt Starfury is armed with a rapid-firing "gatling" cannon for increase damage and rate of fire and is capable of entering planetary atmospheres. It can also be outfitted with missiles or high-yield bombs, allowing the fighter to fulfil a larger range of mission objectives than the standard Aurora Starfury.

However, the Thunderbolt is significantly larger than the standard Starfury and an easier target. Its greater bulk also reduces its effectiveness in zero-gee combat situations, where the Aurora remains the superior option.

Hyperion-class Heavy Cruiser

The Hyperion-class heavy cruiser was the backbone of the Earthforce fleet during the late 2230s and early 2240s. Entering service during the Dilgar War, the Hyperion is noted for its firepower (courtesy of three dual heavy cannon batteries), its manoeuvrability for a ship its size and the ease with which other weapon packages can be rotated on board. Many modern Hyperions have been retrofitted with the heavy beam weapons from the Omega-class, although the Hyperion's smaller power plant means that it cannot fire these beam weapons as quickly as the larger ships.

The Hyperion proved its limitations during the Minbari War and the ship has been reduced in role since then, now often serving as an escort to Omega-class destroyers.

Nova-class Dreadnought

One of the oldest designs still in use by Earthforce, the Nova-class was built around a large spaceframe with the idea of putting as many heavy guns onto a ship as possible. The philosophy, although unsubtle, proved sound during the Dilgar War when the Nova's massive bombardment capability took the ostensibly superior Dilgar ships by surprise and resulted in many enemy losses. The Nova fell out of fashion after the Dilgar War, with the Hyperion deemed more versatile. The relative lack of success of the Hyperion during that war, whilst the Nova's much heavier firepower allowed it to at least damage Minbari warcruisers more often, saw Earthforce revisit the design and adapt it for the later Omega-class.

Omega-class Destroyer

The newest, largest and most powerful ship in the Earthforce arsenal, entering service in 2249. The Omega-class was originally a refit of the Nova, stripping out the massive battery of pulse cannons in favour of a rotating spaceframe to allow more comfortable operating conditions and more sophisticated energy cannons. Derived from Narn designs purchased during the Earth-Minbari War, the Omega's main beam cannons are formidably powerful, especially when used in concert with the cruiser's massive missile batteries and pulse cannons. The rear-mounted beam and pulse cannons give the ship a near total coverage in all directions, preventing enemy ships from engaging from blind spots, and the ship is large enough to carry several squadrons of starfighters. The Omega also has a significant number of dorsal and ventral-mounted turrets for engaging fighters, shooting down ordinance and close-quarters engagements.

The Narn Regime

The youngest of the major powers, having gained their freedom from the Centauri only fifty years or so ago, the Narn Regime is arguably the technologically least well-developed. There is debate on this point, as Narn technology is a hodge-podge of material developed internally, stolen from the Centauri or bought from other worlds.

Like Earth, the Narn do not have artificial gravity. However, Narn physiology is more rugged and durable than that of humans and they can spend much greater periods of time in zero gravity with no (or reduced) ill effects.

Frazi Heavy Fighter

Partially inspired by the Earth Alliance Starfury, the Frazi heavy fighter is heavily armed, relatively fast and well-armoured. It is particularly suited to long-range combat missions and swarms of Frazi fighters can give even the technologically superior Centauri pause. The Frazi does have several weaknesses, however. Its weapons are oriented around the forward-facing cannons and it can be vulnerable to attack from other quarters with less capability than the Starfury for spinning quickly to engage new targest. The Frazi is designed to operate in atmosphere, so is less capable than fighters designed solely for space combat, although this does also make it more versatile in the mission parameters it can tackle.

Ta'Loth-class Assault Cruiser

An ugly design, the Ta'Loth was one of the first capital-class designs churned out by the Narn Regime in the years following the Centauri withdrawal. The ship is a mix of Narn and alien technology, with heavy firepower but relatively limited armour and a vulnerable, externally-mounted control centre. The ship is ungainly and slow to manoeuvre, and is usually employed either if light resistance is expected, under heavy fighter cover or for its primary mission goal, the delivery of large numbers of assault troops onto a target planet or enemy ship.

G'Quan-class Heavy Cruiser

The pride of the Narn fleet, the G'Quan class is the newest, sleekest and most advanced design in the Narn inventory. The G'Quan is a formidable warship, relatively fast and heavily armed with rapid-firing pulse cannons. Most significant are its two forward-mounted beam cannons, which can inflict devastating damage at close or long range. The ship also has heavy ordinance launchers and area-denial weapons, capable of firing energy mines up to several thousand kilometres distant. These combined make the G'Quan a dangerous vessel to engage, particularly at range.

At close range the G'Quan suffers from several significant design flaws, most notably the emphasis on its forward-mounted weapons which make the ship vulnerable to attack from the flanks and particularly the rear. Its armour is also not as heavy as might be wished, with the designers preferring to focus on speed over protection.

The Centauri Republic

The Centauri are one of the older powers in the galaxy and are technologically more advanced than any known race bar the Vorlons and Minbari. However, the Centauri have also stagnated in their technological development over the past couple of centuries, preferring an emphasis on tried-and-tested techniques rather than innovation. Still, the Centauri should not be underestimated in battle.

The Centauri Navy is a large force which is capable of engaging in a large variety of mission types on multiple fronts simultaneously. Earthforce analysts characterise the Centauri military as a "sleeping lion" which would be exceptionally difficult to defeat if provoked to hostility.

Sentri-class Fighter

The Sentri-class fighter is the backbone of the Centauri military, a light and highly manoeuvrable starfighter which has an incredibly tight turning circle and usually attack in large numbers. Centauri pilots develop instinctive relationships with their fighters' AI systems, even letting themselves black out for a few seconds during high-gee turns with confidence that the autopilot can fill in until they get back in the fight. The Sentri's two pulse cannons provide enough firepower to deal with most targets easily, and the Sentri has atmospheric capabilities.

However, the Sentri has significant weaknesses. The fighter is the most lightly-armoured of any of the major races and cannot sustain much damage before being destroyed. It also can't turn on a dime like the Starfury, and its lighter weapons mean that the pilot has to be extremely accurate and persistent to ensure a kill. During skirmishes with the Narn, the Sentri has proven to be a match for the Frazi only when flown by skilled pilots or when they significantly outnumber the enemy.

Vorchan-class Light Cruiser

The Centauri are unusual among the major races for emphasising the role of a light cruiser (or heavy gunship) in its military. The Vorchan-class cruiser is notable for its speed, manoeuvrability and powerful ion cannons. These ships are always deployed in squadrons of at least three and sometimes four ships, breaking to surround and bring down considerably larger vessels. It is also the smallest-known ship (at present) capable of forming its own jump point. The Centauri like to use these ships for ambush and hit-and-run attacks that keep the enemy off-balance whilst more formidable ships are brought to bear.

Despite these capabilities, the Vorchans are still relatively lightly-armoured and not a formidable threat in one-on-one combat with the heavy cruisers of almost any other races (including the ostensibly inferior Narns). They are also reliant on escort Sentris to protect their flanks, but are not large enough to launch fighters themselves, reducing their operational range considerably.

Primus-class Battlecruiser

The Primus-class battlecruiser is the pride and joy of the Centauri fleet. The Primus is a large warship which eschews heavy beam weapons in favour of a massive array of ion cannons and turrets mounted on both the dorsal and ventral surfaces. The Primus can engage multiple targets simultaneously or concentrate its weapons fire in massive barrages. The Primus can also engage in planetary bombardments (indeed, an older variant of Primus carried mass drivers to bombard planets with asteroids, but these were removed after the Centauri signed treaties banning their use) and carries a squadron Sentri-class fighters for defence. A smaller variant of Primus is also used as the Imperial Flagship for the use of the Emperor himself.

The Primus has several notable weaknesses. It is devastating in close-quarters battle but is vulnerable in long-range engagements. Its reliance on ion blasts - which, although devastating if they hit, can be dispersed relatively easily by interceptor fire - can also limits its effectiveness. Most notably, the Primus may be large but it's not as tough as it may appear, and its armour protection is not as strong as might be wished. The Primus is best-used in conjunction with fleets of Vorchans and Sentris for this reason.

The Minbari Federation

The Minbari are the oldest of the known races (bar perhaps the Vorlons), having been a spacefaring civilisation for well over a thousand years. Their technology is centuries ahead of even the Centauri, as the Earth Alliance discovered to its great cost in the Earth-Minbari War of 2245-48.

Fully a third of the Minbari civilisation - the warrior caste - is dedicated to combat and battle, although as a species they are surprisingly adaptable and both the worker and religious castes can fight if pressed.

Nial Heavy Fighter

The Nial fighter is the most dangerous single-pilot vehicle in known space. The Nial is insanely fast, its gravitational drive allowing it to reverse momentum, move in different directions and change attitude very quickly. Its three rapid-firing plasma beam cannons are simply the most powerful weapons ever seen on a fighter its size, and even a small number of Nials can overwhem and destroy the heavy cruisers of other species in relatively short order. Minbari technology also gives the Nial stealth capabilities, making it hard for enemy ships to lock on.

The Nial has few weaknesses, but they do exist. The Nial can operate in atmosphere and close to planets, but its gravimetric drives are reduced in efficiency, which can give other ships the chance to match their speed and manoeuvrability. The Nial's superior agility is matched by the Earthforce Starfury's ability to spin and change direction even faster than the Nial. Although the Starfury is still outmatched by the Niall, the difference is much closer than any other race (even the Centauri Sentri) and the Minbar were given a rude surprise during the war where Starfury squadrons deployed in numbers could check a Nial advance, if not backed up by heavier vessels.

Tinashi-class War Frigate

The Tinashi-class was introduced over a thousand years ago and is the oldest Minbari ship still in regular use, although it is now rarely seen. It was once the most powerful and largest ship in the Minbari fleet, but over the centuries it became less capable and was reduced in capability from a cruiser to a frigate.

Although the spaceframe and design is ancient, the class has been periodically refitted with the latest technology, including Minbari stealth systems and beam weapons, making it still a formidable vessel to face in combat.

Sharlin-class Warcruiser

The Minbari warcruiser is a sight know to strike terror into the hearts of other races. The Sharlin is, simply, the most formidable warship in known space (bar, again, Vorlon designs). Equipped with long-range plasma beam weapons capable of vapourising targets hundreds of kilometres away and a plethora of close-in beam weapons, the Sharlin fairly bristles with destructive potential. Its armour is extremely thick and the ship's navigation systems are so precise that it can jump in and out of hyperspace mid-battle, allowing it to quickly evade ambushes and then turn the tables on the enemy. The Minbari have also been known to use hyperspace jump points themselves as weapons, tearing enemy ships apart before jumping in to mop up the survivors.

In recorded history only two Sharlin warcruisers are known to have been lost to enemy action: one was destroyed by a nuclear mine and another was rammed by a Nova-class dreadnought (part of the ship survived but it had to be scuttled later), both during the Earth-Minbari War.

The Vorlon Empire

The most enigmatic of the major races, the Vorlons are believed to use organic technology and employ weapons, scanners and defence systems which make even the Minbari appear to be archaic. Vorlon ships have very rarely been seen in action, and the few times they have have stood as a warning to other races not to challenge them in battle.

Vorlon Fighter

The Vorlon fighter is small but equipped with an energy discharge weapon which operates on unknown principles. Most targets are destroyed instantly by the hit.

Vorlon Transport

The most commonly-seen Vorlon vessel is the modestly-named "transport" which moves the rarely-appointed Vorlon ambassadors from post to post. The Vorlon transports are very heavily armed with an incredibly powerful beam weapon which can vapourise capital ships in a single blast, leading some to classify them as medium or even heavy cruisers instead, despite their relatively limited size.

Vorlon Heavy Cruiser

The Vorlon heavy cruiser is one of the largest ships in known space, at almost two miles in length. The heavy cruiser is equipped with a massive forward beam weapon, a scaled-up version of that on the transport. This weapon has never been seen to fire at full strength, but is considered to be unsurvivable.

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.